Alpha and Omega
by Annaleise Marie
Summary: On a fairly routine hunt, a strange girl stumbles out in front of the Impala. When Cas recognizes her and her sister for what they really are, the Winchesters and company are hurled once more into a battle for their lives, and the lives of billions of unsuspecting humans. [NOT a/b/o]
1. The Sound

**Alpha and Omega  
**Annaleise Marie

**Summary**: On a fairly routine hunt, a strange girl stumbles out in front of the Impala. When Cas recognizes her and her sister for what they really are, the Winchesters and company are hurtled once more into a battle for their lives, and the lives of billions of unsuspecting humans. [not a/b/o. story-centric.]

**Chapter One**: The Sound

**AN**: I blame a lifetime of sitting through Catholic funeral services for this one.

Of course I do not own Supernatural. At all. I just like to create a cheap imitation of sorts.

X

_Ego sum Alpha et Omega principium et finis dicit Dominus Deus qui est et qui erat et qui venturus est Omnipotens._

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

X

Shelby Adkins was at a complete loss. For the last eight years, she had been the mother of two perfectly healthy, beautiful, twin girls. Charlotte and Jennifer Adkins were astoundingly normal. Their infancy and early childhood had been astoundingly normal. They were just a normal little family in a normal little house in a normal little suburban town in Vermont.

Well, normal until that night, a few months ago, when the Sound hit. That was the only way Shelby had been able to describe it. There had been a piercing noise, so loud it brought her to her knees, her hands clapped tight over her ears, her eyes screwed shut as the glass of the shower door and the mirror in her bathroom shattered, spraying her with glass.

The Sound had ended as quickly as it began, leaving her with only a dull ringing deep in her ears that she knew to be just a phantom of the original noise. She picked herself up shakily and gingerly stepped across the glass-dusted tile, thankful that she had slipped on her slippers when she had sleepily left her bed for the bathroom.

She felt something wet trickle down her face to meet her top lip, and she brought her finger to it gently. She pulled her finger away to see blood. She had a nose bleed. Given the state of the mirror, she supposed she should just be glad her skull was still intact.

Shelby was in shock. She didn't know what to think. What were you supposed to think when a Sound hit your home, shattering everything, nearly killing you?

It hit her like a ton of bricks. _Charlotte and Jennifer_.

Abandoning her careful movements, Shelby tore through the upper floor of the house, noting with every glance around her that each and every window in the house appeared to be blown out. The pictures on the walls were distorted behind spiderwebbed glass. The saltwater fishtank in the hall had disentigrated entirely, flooding the hardwood floor. The fish, poor bastards, hadn't flopped about in a desperate bid to fill their gills, but it was little comfort given the states of their bodies. Or, what was left of them.

All of this was pulled into Shelby's mind and then pushed back out as she reached the twin's bedroom door. She grabbed the knob, twisting and pushing, stumbling into the room.

She came to a sudden stop, hardly believing her eyes.

Everything in the room was normal. The wide window between the two beds was still intact, open to let a gentle breeze in. Shelby's eyes roamed to Charlotte's collection of snowglobes, then to Jennifer's porcelain dolls. None showed any sign of the damage that the rest of the house had suffered.

How had the Sound not touched this room? How was everything so unnervingly _normal_? 

Well…_almost _everything.

Charlotte and Jennifer were sitting up in their beds, backs rigid, expressions blank, eyes glassy.

Shelby hurried over to them, sitting on the edge of Charlotte's bed, one arm wrapped protectively around her as she held her other hand out, beckoning Jennifer to her. "Are you okay? Did that sound wake you up?"

Jennifer didn't look at her. She turned her head slowly to Charlotte and realized that she hadn't reacted to her mother's touch or voice, either.

Shelby swallowed hard. "Girls?"

Was this a dream? Was she dreaming?

She jumped when she felt Charlotte's hand on her cheek. She looked down at her daughter, whose eyes had lost that glassy quality, focusing sharply on her. Her expression was soft, almost pitying, and Shelby opened her mouth to speak—

The next moment she jerked awake in her own bed. Disoriented, her wild gaze raked the room. The windows were intact, and through the ajar bathroom door, she could see no glass on the tile. The pictures on the walls were likewise undamaged.

She got to her feet, hurrying to the hall, and stopped in her tracks at what she saw.

The fish tank stood, just where it always did, the filter bubbling diligently, the brightly-colored fish drifting lazily through the water, occasionally bobbing up to pull a piece of food from the surface.

Had she been dreaming?

She must have been. She had dreamed the Sound, and the destruction, and the twin's strange behavior. She was sure of it. It had to be.

But as much as she tried to reassure herself, one thing was for certain: over the following months, Charlotte and Jennifer refused to utter a single word.

X

The girl who used to be Charlotte Adkins opened her bedroom window quietly, raising the pane of glass completely. Or…_her body_ used to be Charlotte Adkins.

It didn't matter. The body standing beside her was Jennifer Adkins. The being beside her was her sister, as well. She didn't know their names, what they were called these days. They had gone by many names, and it had been millennia since they had last walked this earth.

They had arrived on orders, with no plan in place that they had been informed of. But now they could sense one. And they knew they needed to find it. They could feel it, as surely as if they had been instructed to do it.

_Castiel_, she thought. Her sister nodded.

One after the other, they stepped through the window and dropped gracefully to the grass below. They joined hands as they walked into the night.

X

"Why's it always gotta be witches?" Dean groaned, his hands clutching the steering wheel of the Impala tightly. He hated witches. Sure, most of what they hunted was a monumental pain in the ass, and they all had to be taken care of, but the witches were the worst. And come on, Dean had gone up against _gods_. So that was saying something.

Castiel wrinkled his brow in confusion. "It is not always witches, Dean. Have you forgotten the demons and ghosts and vampires and—"

Sam shook his head, glancing pointedly at Castiel. The angel shook his head. He wasn't sure what he had done wrong, but he had learned to take the cues that he had missed something a little better over time.

"All I'm saying is I'd take a pissed off ghost over a witch any day of the—"

"Dean!" Sam cut off his complaining, his eyes nearly bulging out of his head.

Dean slammed on the brakes and jerked the wheel hard, causing the Impala to drift with the loud squeal of tires and the acrid smell of burning rubber, coming to a halt just inches from the girl who had run into the road.

It took the hunters a second to react, but Castiel was already out of the car, staring down at the girl, who smiled gently back up at him. She had dark hair, almost black, that reached down to her waist in loose curls, and bright blue eyes.

"Am I crazy, or does that kid look like…" Dean trailed off. It wasn't possible. Was it?

"Cas? Yeah, she kind of does." Sam looked just as freaked out as Dean felt as he fumbled with his seatbelt, hurrying to get out of the car.

The hunters approached Cas and the girl warily. She was still smiling up at the angel, but his face was set in its usual stoic mask, giving nothing away.

After a tense minute he spoke. "Alpha. I do not think it has changed." He waited a moment, his eyes crinkling at the corners like he was thinking hard. "Omega. Where is she?"

There was the sharp snap of a twig from the side of the road. The trio whirled around, and for a moment Sam and Dean thought that the girl had ghosted out on them and reappeared on the shoulder. But this girl's hair was cut slightly shorter, and her sweater was black while the other's was white. Call it a hunch, but they didn't think ghosts were big on altering appearances.

"Cas, who the hell are they?" Sam asked, trying to keep his voice steady. The way the second girl was looking at him was unnerving, her eyes blank and emotionless as she stepped closer to them.

The look of intense concentration was once more pulling at Cas' features. "They are Alpha and Omega. They are lesser known celestial beings."

"Angels?" Dean sounded irritated. Angels showing up rarely ended well for them, after all.

"No. They are not warriors. They are messengers. Collectively they are also known as the Voice of God. Alpha can carry any news. But Omega…" Cas' expression turned to one of regret, as though he didn't want to continue. "Omega is the harbinger of Armageddon."

X

**AN**: First Supernatural fic, so please, please don't be too mean? Having said that, I do welcome concrit, suggestions, and such. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story!


	2. A Hundred Righteous Men

**Alpha and Omega  
**Annaleise Marie

**Chapter Two**: A Hundred Righteous Men

**AN**: I checked, and I've got just under seven weeks to complete this story if I don't want to put it on hiatus for the new school term, so let's light this candle, yeah?

Thank you so, so much to everyone who read and added this story to their alert list, and to **endversecas **and **Signos the great** for reviewing!

X

"They should order something." Dean nodded at the twins, who were paying no attention to their children's menus, or the crayons that came with them.

Cas looked surprised. "They do not require food, Dean."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but if they don't order something, the waitress is going to think it's weird that you aren't feeding your kids."

"They are not my children. They are more like aunts."

"It doesn't matter, they look exactly like you!"

"The resemblance in our vessels is merely coincidental."

Sam looked up from his computer, where he was skimming through news articles, trying to find what each of the witch's victims had in common. "Cas, just tell them to order something, please?"

"They cannot speak." Cas felt that this should be obvious, but the looks that Sam and Dean gave him suggested otherwise.

"The fricking Voice of God can't speak?" Dean demanded.

"Not unless my father has something to say." Cas' eyes were downcast. "He's been pretty quiet for a while, as you know."

"But you can hear them." Sam raised his eyebrows at Cas. "You were talking to Alpha when she first appeared."

"I can hear their grace. Not their actual voices."

Dean rubbed his temples, trying to stay calm. Sometimes talking to the angel was frustrating beyond belief. "Then find out what they want and order for them."

Cas looked confused. "They do not want anything. They do not require food."

Dean let out a frustrated growl. Here they were, at the beginning again. "Then _pretend_, Cas."

"I do not—"

"Are you ready to order?" Their waitress had finally made her way over, a pen and order pad in hand, looking at them expectantly.

Dean and Sam placed their orders and then looked expectantly at Cas.

"I am not hungry. But I suppose these two will have the…" He trailed off, squinting at the kid's menu. "Chicken fingers." His eyes flickered up to Dean's. "Chickens do not have fingers."

Dean let out a forced laugh. "Yeah, that's a good one." He looked at the waitress. "That'll be all, sweetheart. Thanks."

The waitress blushed and hurried back to the counter.

"Got it." Sam looked up from his laptop once more. "All of the victims had kids between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, and all of them are enrolled at St. Johnsbury Academy, about twenty miles away."

"Fancy private school kids dabbling in black magic?" Dean scoffed. "That's sure to end well."

"There's more. St. Johnsbury is a boarding school. When I dug deeper, I linked up about eight other bizarre deaths across the country with students at the school. All parents." Sam turned the laptop to show Dean the articles.

"So these brats get shipped off to some boarding school, resent the parents for it, and decide to get some revenge." Dean shook his head. "So I guess we're ganking kids now."

Sam shook his head. "There's gotta be some other way to stop it."

"What? Put them in detention? They're killing people, Sam, not texting in class."

Sam sighed. "Fine. But how are we even going to get in? There's no reason for the FBI or CDC to be there. None of the victims were actually at the school when they died."

Dean thought about it for a moment. "I may have an idea."

X

"Pest control?" The blonde secretary in the main office looked skeptical. "We don't have a pest problem."

"And we're working hard to keep it that way." Dean gave her a winning smile. This was going to be a tougher bluff than most. It wasn't like they made exterminator badges, after all.

"I don't know… I would feel more comfortable if you'd wait for Principal Jackson to get back from lunch." The secretary bit her lip.

Sam leaned towards her, resting his arms on the counter. "Do you know how quickly cockroaches multiply, ma'am? We should really get started as quickly as possible, or soon this place will be overrun with the crawly, nasty things."

The secretary looked a little sick at that thought, and nodded briefly. The hunters took this as their cue and left the office before she could change her mind.

Two hours, fifty dorm rooms, and countless posters of boy bands that made Dean fear for the music tastes of the next generation later, they had found nothing. No alters, no books, no hex bags.

"There's this, though." Sam held out a stack of yellow papers to Dean. "Disciplinary forms. Every one of the kids whose parents died had multiples of these. Every single one from the same teacher, a Carl Branson."

"So?" Dean flipped through the forms. "Every school has a hardass teacher."

"Yeah, but most of the offenses are pretty vague. Insubordination, back talk, lack of preparation for class. It almost seems like this teacher had an axe to grind."

"So you think this teacher was out to get them?" Dean raised an eyebrow skeptically.

Sam shrugged. "It happens." He took the forms back. "So what if this he's trying to punish these kids for something? And when this wasn't doing the job…"

"He killed their parents? I don't know, man. Seems like a bit of a stretch."

"Worth checking out, though." Sam led the way through the courtyard that separated the dorms from the main school. "We don't really have any other leads."

They found Branson's office on the second floor, empty and locked for the evening. Sam made quick work of the lock and the two of them stepped in, peering around in the dim light filtering through the blinds. The office was simple, with a large desk strewn with papers and pens, a computer, and two high-backed chairs facing it. Both sides of the room were lined with bookshelves.

They systematically searched the office until Sam got to the desk. "Dean," he said, tearing his brother's attention away from the bookshelf he was searching.

Dean crossed the room to stand beside Sam, peering into the open desk drawer. "Yeah, that'll do it."

Everything a witch would need to construct an altar was stored neatly in the drawer. Candles, herbs, a knife, and pictures of couples, most of them in their forties.

Something tickled the back of Sam's mind. "The pictures. There were empty frames in a few of the rooms."

"Good job, putting all of this together."

The brothers jumped, spinning to see a man dressed in a pair of slacks, a button down, and a blazer standing beside them. His lips were twisted into a cruel smile, his eyes narrowed behind his rimless glasses.

"Carl Branson, am I right?" Dean asked, his hand going slowly to his waistband, where he had tucked his Colt. Before he could reach it, however, he was tossed back into the wall.

"Wouldn't do that if I were you." The teacher's eyes flashed dangerously.

Sam steeled himself for a fight, trying to decide between subtlety in going for his gun and just tossing caution to the wind and trying to get a shot off before he got flung himself. Before he could move, however, Branson's eyes rolled back in his head and blood trickled from his mouth. Sam looked down, shocked, and saw a small hand, caked in blood and gore, protruding from the man's stomach.

Branson fell, landing with a nasty thud on the linoleum floor, his blood quickly pooling around him, and that's when Sam saw, behind him, Alpha, staring with mild interest at her still-outstretched hand.

X

"What the hell is going on with these kids, Cas?" Dean demanded, slamming his hand down on the table in the motel they had gotten for the night.

"I told you, they are messengers of—"

"Well, they haven't given us any damn messages yet, and the chattier one just Aliened a witch!"

"I imagine she was trying to help you." Cas looked infuriatingly unperturbed. "She must like you."

Dean gaped at the angel as Sam dissolved into laughter. It was a moment before he could think of anything to say. "Great. The freaking Voice of God likes me. So why is she trying to restart the end of the damned planet I live on?"

"Omega is the harbinger of Armageddon, not Alpha. And they haven't said anything," Sam answered in what he clearly thought was a helpful tone. "Maybe that's not what they're here for."

"Cas said that Alpha can carry any message, but Omega is the postman of doom, right?" Dean looked at Cas for confirmation.

The angel gave it some thought. "Those are their roles, yes."

"So Omega wouldn't just be here on a milk run, then. If it was something routine, or as routine as it gets when God decides to finally open his piehole, then Omega wouldn't be here, would she?" Dean pressed.

"They always appear together. They share a grace. They need matched vessels." Cas caught the exasperated look on the hunters' faces and continued. "That is why twins run in families. My guess would be that these girls were the most recent in a long line of twin births in their family."

"Great." Dean stood up, crossing his arms and pacing across the room and back. "So what you're telling me, is that we have no clue what's going on until one of them decides to open their mouths and drop a big old Armageddon bomb on us?"

"Unless it's Alpha who speaks up. Maybe God's just wanting to say sorry for the whole not answering the phone thing during the apocalypse." Sam was clearly joking, but Dean wished there was even a remote possibility that was the case.

"I do not think that is likely," Cas said.

"Yeah, we know." Sam sat back in his chair, looking defeated.

Dean stopped in front of the twins, where they were sitting, emotionless, on one of the beds. The wheels in his mind were turning. "So…if their message could set off the apocalypse again, what happens if they can't deliver the message?"

"Killing them does not stop it from happening, any more than silencing a train's whistle stops the train from coming."

"You wanna just tell us what you know about them?" Sam asked, shutting his computer. "The lore doesn't mention them at all. Just that God called himself 'Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending'…"

"'Which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty'." Cas nodded. "It is how they got their name. But I do not know much about them. They have not walked the earth in millennia. The last time was in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. I believe your modern translation simply says that my father Himself visited Abraham, and that Abraham struck a bargain with him to save the cities if even ten righteous men could be found within. But it was Alpha and Omega, speaking for Him."

"But that was only two cities. I thought Omega foretold the apocalypse?" Sam's brow was wrinkled in confusion.

Cas smiled softly. "The civilized world was much smaller then."

"Okay. So we wait, and see which one speaks." Sam shrugged.

Dean wanted to do something, anything other than sit and wait. But he had to admit that it seemed like their only option.

"Weren't Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed because of some gay orgy?" he asked. He was thinking of a joke he had heard in a bar, long before he met Cas and found out that the stories were real, if misrepresented.

"The cities were destroyed as a result of rampant depravity, but the final sin, the final crime that sealed their fate, was when they tried to rape two of my brothers."

"Well, here's hoping it was Michael, that dick." Dean sighed and sat down.

X

Dean was awoken in the middle of the night when someone sat down on the edge of his bed, resting their cool hand on his bare arm. He sat straight up, looking around wildly until, through the dark shadows of the room, he made out the form of Omega.

"I know you love them, Dean." Omega's voice was soft, pitying. "I know you love this world. I love them all, too. I created them. I brought them together from cosmic dust, and I gave them life, and love, and pain, and happiness—everything that makes your human experience the beautiful thing that it is. And when it is over, I bring them to me, and I carry them with me for the rest of time. I created all of it, and I love you all so much. But it is time, and this _must _come to pass. You will not be able to stop it again."

"But people will die. These humans that you love so much, they will suffer, and they will _die_." Dean was almost pleading, a fact that he was embarrassed to admit. But he was humbled, somehow. He was talking to God. "If you love them, how could you want that?"

Omega smiled sadly, reaching out to cradle Dean's face in her hands. "I do not expect you to understand. But this world must refresh. It must start over. It _must _come to pass. Do not interfere, Dean." She leaned down and pressed her lips gently to his forehead. "I am sorry for the suffering that has befallen you."

A fat lot of good _sorry _had ever done Dean. Besides, this was God. This was a being so powerful that it could snap its fingers and create worlds. If it really wanted to stop the suffering, it could.

Something Cas had said hit him like a ton of bricks. "Wait." He reached out, grabbing the girl's wrist as she moved to stand. "You would have spared those cities if ten righteous men were found."

Omega didn't speak for a long moment. Finally, she nodded. "I do not punish all for a few. But the world is much larger now, the souls of humans much more heavily soiled. You, Dean Winchester, are a righteous man. But there aren't nearly enough of you."

"I'll find twenty," Dean offered quickly. Hell, if he was considered righteous, surely there must be others.

"I agreed upon ten for Sodom and Gomorrah at a time when there were barely a million people on the planet. Your kind now numbers in the billions, scattered across all corners of the Earth." Omega's face betrayed no emotion. "I'm afraid twenty is not enough."

"What will it take?"

"Proportionately you would have to find me eighty thousand righteous men."

Dean's heart dropped. _Eighty thousand? _He'd do better to go a few rounds in the cage with Michael and Lucifer himself.

"But I know this world, Dean, and I will be quite impressed if you can find a hundred righteous souls."

"If I can, will you call this off?"

Again, Omega didn't answer right away. Dean thought his heart was going to hammer right out of his chest. "Yes," she finally said. "But if you cannot, you will watch your world burn."

X

**AN**: Fun fact, there are scholars who believe that the great sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not homosexuality, but in fact bestiality, as the angels were of a different species. I considered having Cas make a joke to this effect, but it seemed quite out of place. Also, I didn't want to spark great religious debate.

So… Thoughts? I'm open to concrit and suggestions, and welcome any feedback short of flames. Please don't with the flames, okay? :)

See you next chapter, I hope!


	3. Rihtwisnes

**Alpha and Omega  
**Annaleise Marie

**Chapter Three**: Rihtwisnes

**AN**: This chapter required a _lot _of research, so I'm very sorry if there's anything I missed or got wrong.

Thanks so much to everyone who has read and added this story to their lists so far! Big thanks to **Lupinista** and **sonyakitzmiller ** for reviewing the last chapter! I loved hearing from you guys.

X

The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom; his tongue speaks that which is just. The instruction of his God in his heart, his steps do not falter. – Psalms 37:80

X

Dean woke up again with a start, blinking to try to force his eyes to adjust to the dark motel room. Cas was seated at the table, his eyes focused on Alpha. The way they were staring at each other, unblinking, was unnerving to say the least, but it had nothing on the way Omega was staring at Dean.

"Dean." Cas didn't move his eyes from Alpha as he addressed the hunter. "Alpha wants to know how long we must stay here."

"Didn't you hear…" It hit him after a moment and he jumped up. "She ninja'd into my freaking dreams!" It wasn't the first time that a supernatural being had hijacked his dreams for their own purposes, but it still made him feel somehow violated.

"She spoke to you?" Cas' low voice was laced with worry. "So it is starting?"

Dean ran his hand through his short hair, looking around and spotting Sam's phone on the table that separated the two beds. He picked it up and tossed it at his brother, hitting him in the shoulder. "Wake up, Sammy!"

Same came out of sleep swinging for a moment before he remembered where he was, a habit he had developed following his time in the psych ward. "What's goin' on?" His voice was thick with sleep as he blinked blearily at the others.

"My father has spoken to Dean." Cas appeared to be struggling to maintain an unaffected voice. "Privately." He couldn't resist tacking on the bitter word.

Dean couldn't think of anything to say to the angry angel, so he focused instead on relaying the message, and the resulting deal, to them. The story was met with heavy silence.

It was Sam who finally spoke. "A hundred righteous souls…" His brow was furrowed as he mulled it over. "It'll take some time, but it doesn't seem impossible."

"You may be surprised how difficult it will be," Cas disagreed.

"Come on. _Dean_ is a righteous man. Our _father_ was a righteous man. The standards can't be that high."

Dean snorted. "Thanks, Sammy." But his brother _had_ made a fair point. "What exactly makes a soul righteous?"

"You cannot make a soul righteous, they just are."

Sam ignored Cas, his arms crossed over his broad chest. "Apparently they drink whiskey like it's water, sleep with anyone who bats an eyelash at them, commits credit fraud, and impersonates federal and private officials." He looked innocently at his brother, his head cocked slightly to the side.

"Oh, screw you, Sam. I'm not the one who hopped into bed with a demon set on bringing about the end of the world."

That shut Sam up. Still, Cas waited a moment to see if the argument would escalate before returning to the original question. You never could tell with the Winchesters.

"My father does not care about such trivial things." He stood up and walked over to Dean, circling the hunter slowly. "As I said, a soul is not _made _righteous, it simply _is _righteous. When your language was new, it was called _rihtwisnes_. It meant, simply, right-ways-ness. A righteous soul will demand to follow the right way, regardless of the mind's attempts to follow any other path. So while Dean may be a drunk, philandering, liar—"

Dean made an irritated noise and raised an eyebrow at the angel, trying to hint at him to get to the point.

Cas, of course, was not the type to pick up on any such hint. He continued as though there had been no interruption. "—and you could argue that he is morally reprehensible in every way, that is not the point. The righteous soul is concerned with what's just, and helping those in need. And above all, the soul puts family first. Particularly spouses and, for some reason, brothers." Cas stopped his slow circling and looked pointedly at Sam. "That is why you are not a righteous man."

"And our father was?" Sam asked, his eyes flashing, jaw set.

"Yes." Cas studied Sam's face for a moment. "I don't understand your anger. This is not new information."

"Based on everything you've said, our father was the very last person who should have been called righteous!" Sam ran his hand through his hair irritably. "I'm not mad because I'm _not_, I get that, I just don't understand why he _was_!"

"He put his marriage and his sacred vows before all else when he was alive, and even now he is on the rack to keep other souls off of it." Cas didn't blink, even as Dean made a move as though to grab him angrily.

Dean's hand fell to his side as he turned away. It had felt like a cheap shot, but of course Cas had a point. He _had_ gotten off of the rack. He had put souls on, and picked up the knife, and started the whole stupid thing the first time around.

This time would be different, though. This time he would end it before it even started.

As though he could hear Dean's thoughts, Cas continued. "You've spotted the problem, however. Righteous souls often do not appear so, and wickedness is often meant with the best intentions."

Dean sighed, rolling his neck to relieve the tension that had already settled in, despite only having been awake for a short time. "So how do we find them, then?"

Cas looked puzzled. "We look, of course."

Sam gaped at him and Dean scoffed derisively.

"Great," the older Winchester said dryly. "And here I was worried your answer would be vague."

X

A half hour later, the hunters, the angel, and the twins were all crammed into the Impala. Sam was at the wheel as Dean surveyed a list of people they knew who might fit the bill. The problem was, most of the people that came to mind—Jo, Ellen, hell, maybe even Ash—were dead. It left him with a short list. Even if he was right about everyone on it, he still wouldn't have been able to produce enough righteous souls to save Sodom and Gomorrah.

"How do we know if we've found a righteous one?" Sam asked as they pulled out of the motel parking lot. "Can you see them or something?"

It took Cas a moment to realize the younger Winchester was addressing him. "Not on this plane. I could see Dean's soul in Hell. It was how I found him to pull him out. But in Earth…I have to touch."

Sam winced. He knew what that was like, and he had no desire to inflict that pain on anyone else.

Dean, seeing this, turned to look at the occupants of the backseat. "Okay, what about the Wonder Twins, then?" His gaze flickered to Omega, who was staring at him blankly. "What about you, chatterbox? This is your deal, after all."

The girl turned her gaze to Cas, who appeared to be listening intently. "This is not her deal, Dean. She merely relayed the message."

Dean huffed, turning back to face the road. "Got a car full of Confucius here."

Sam looked at Cas in the rearview mirror. "Okay, fair enough, but can they?"

Again Cas seemed to be listening. "No," he finally answered. "Their eyes are the same as mine."

Dean sighed. "Okay then. Hope Bobby's ready for an angel cavity search."

X

Through sheer force of will and a complete disregard for driving laws, the group managed to reach Bobby's in just over a day. They found the surly man in one of the many rows of half-salvaged cars, his legs protruding from under the rusted Toyota. The sound of a wrench came reached them, clanking methodically.

"Hey, Bobby!" Dean shouted, slapping the hood harshly. "We need a favor."

"You idjits always need a damned favor." Bobby didn't pause in his work. "Answer the phones, look up what this thing is and how to kill it, find the blood of a nephilim or the horn of a rhino. Like I can just run down to Walmart—"

"And we _really_ appreciate that, Bobby," Sam was quick to interject. "But this a little more personal."

There was a pause and then Bobby slid out from under the car, scrutinizing the two hunters carefully. "What trouble you two in now? Father another monster?"

Dean rolled his eyes. "As if we'd be that stupid." At Bobby's pointed stare he shifted uncomfortably. "Again," he added.

Bobby stood slowly and stretched his back. "Alright, then. What is it? The damned world ending again?"

"Yes." Cas was the one who answered this time. "And I need to reach inside of you."

"Well." Bobby's voice was gruffer than normal as he turned to head for the house. "You'd think you'd at least buy me a drink first."

X

A half hour and much protest—during which Bobby continued shifting around the room to stay as far away from "those creepy little kids" as possible—later, the old man was gritting his teeth against the pain, a low groan issuing from his throat. Cas was elbow-deep in his torso, his hand closed around Bobby's soul.

The angel's expression went from one of concentration to alarm, and he quickly withdrew. Bobby sank into the couch, his muscles relaxing, sweat beading on his forehead.

"Balls," he groaned. "I've been shot, been stabbed, been thrown across rooms…but _that_ sucked."

"Well?" Dean prompted Cas, hoping that Bobby's pain wasn't pointless.

The angel still looked troubled. "His soul is of no use to us."

"What? So you're telling me that _Bobby_, of all people, doesn't have a righteous soul?" Sam's eyes were wide with disbelief.

"It may have been. It is too damaged to say for sure." Cas was rolling the sleeves of his shirt and trenchcoat back down, his eyes still focused on the old hunter.

"What do you mean, damaged?" Dean didn't understand how a soul could become damaged. Yeah, it had happened to Sam, but then Bobby hadn't gone ten rounds in the cage with Michael and Lucifer. "Can't you fix it? You fixed Sam."

"This is not the kind of thing that I can fix, or take on myself." Cas looked at Dean regretfully. "And before you ask, I cannot tell you the source of the damage. I do not believe Bobby would appreciate it if I did."

It had surprised the angel. He never would have guessed that the gruff old man had committed patricide.

If this was the sort of secret that many humans harbored deep within them, then his father had been right in his claim that it would be nearly impossible for them to complete this task.

X

**AN**: Bobby's alive because I still haven't quite come to grips with any other reality yet.

I have a Twitter, and if you like this story you should follow me there as I struggle with it and my sanity. The two are undoubtedly related. My username is AnnaNocturnal.

So now I'll turn it over to you guys! Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? I welcome all feedback!

See you next chapter. :)


	4. Mormons and Mice

**Alpha and Omega**

Annaleise Marie

**Chapter Four**: Mormons and Mice

**AN**: Thanks so much to everyone who read this story and added it to their favorites and alerts! And so much thanks to **endversecas** and **Lupinista **for reviewing. It's so heartening to a writer who's new to a fandom, such as myself.

Note: There was originally an error in this chapter, residue from the original version, which was changed, and a character omitted. Thus the re-upload.

X

"But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place." – Luke 21:36

X

Dean felt like he hadn't slept in weeks. Of course, that was pretty close to the truth. They had tracked down nearly everyone on their list, a task not helped by the fact that most of them were hunters and constantly on the move. At one point, in Louisiana, they had caught wind that Rufus was in New Mexico, only to find out halfway there that he had finished his job and was on the move to take care of a shapeshifter in North Carolina.

And for all of that, not one of the people on Dean's list so far had possessed a righteous soul. They had left their friends, their brothers in arms, gasping in pain for nothing.

Not to mention that hearing that you aren't righteous when freaking John and Dean Winchester were didn't exactly seem to put people in a good mood.

So here he was, a month later, with only two names left on his list. They were the two he thought most likely, other than Bobby, but God help him, he didn't have the heart to drag them into this.

So before he climbed into the Impala, he folded the list back up and shoved it into his pocket. He looked at Sam, hoping that he would have an alternative destination in mind. "Where to, Sammy?"

His brother unfolded a newspaper. "Salt Lake City. Five people have died recently—get this, their flesh was carved off."

"So, what, a ghoul?"

Sam shrugged. "Maybe. I've found a connection between the victims, though. All of them were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Dean stared at him blankly and he sighed. "Mormons, Dean."

"What, like _Sister Wives_?"

From the backseat, Cas scoffed.

"Well, no members of the LDS Church practice polygamy anymore, but yeah." Sam stared out at the road as they merged onto the highway. "Why would ghouls specifically target Mormons, though?"

"Multiple wives and no alcohol?" Dean took his eyes off the road and grinned at the younger hunter. "If it was me, I'd've asked them to."

X

Dean yawned widely. Sam had been trying for a solid hour to question Olivia Markham, the widow of Caleb Markham, the most recent victim, but the woman was completely inconsolable.

"He was just…such a g-good m-man!" Her face was buried in her hands, her shoulders heaving with sobs.. "Why would anyone d-do this to him? He h-had so m-much more he was m-meant to do!"

"I'm sure he did, ma'am." Sam was pulling out the big sympathetic eyes. "I know this must be hard for you."

"You don't understand! He was one of the Righteous Ones!" Olivia was speaking quickly now, her eyes desperate. "A hundred righteous men will stand at Armageddon, and Caleb was one!"

"Wait," Dean said, suddenly wide awake despite the fact that his sleeping situation hadn't improved since they had reached Salt Lake City a week ago. "Back up. Your husband thought he was one of a hundred righteous men that would stand at Armageddon?"

"It was his patriarchal blessing. It was made sure, along with the other four murdered men."

Dean's brow wrinkled in confusion but Sam leaned over, explaining in a hushed voice. "When a Mormon boy reaches a certain age, they receive a message or calling from God. When it's made sure it's like, officially recorded and typed up and all that."

Dean narrowed his eyes. "How do you know all of this?"

Sam paused and cleared his throat. "Jess had an uncle..." He turned his attention back to Olivia.

"And Ava told me that she could see their righteous souls, so we should continue to hold strong in our faith that his blessing would come to pass." She continued on as though there had been no pause.

"This Ava…she claims she can see righteous souls?"

"Yes!" She looked at the hunters, her eyes wide. "She showed up about a month ago, and she verified that all of the men were truly righteous. Someone killed them because of this, but the police won't believe me!" Her face fell. "And you probably think I'm crazy, too."

"Oh, not for this." Dean smiled.

Sam glared at him, but when he spoke he was addressing Olivia. "Where can we find Ava?"

"She's at the LDS Conference Center. It's the one hundred eighty-fourth annual general conference this weekend. But you probably won't even be able to get inside. Tickets are sold out."

"All due respect, ma'am, this is what we do." Dean jerked his head towards the door and the hunters left.

X

The Conference Center was a complete zoo. People were lined up out the doors of the impressive building.

"Okay, the next general session starts at two o'clock. That would probably be the best time to try to spot this Ava chick." Sam was scrolling through the Conference website on his phone.

Dean scoffed. "Armed with only a general description. Short, pretty, brown hair and eyes. Piece of cake."

Sam continued, ignoring him. "But it's a service, so even if we find her, we won't be able to even try to question her until after it's over." He hit the home button and slid the phone into his pocket. "So, how are we getting in? Federal government can't interfere in religious practice unless something illegal is going on, and you can bet they're going to demand a warrant."

"Don't worry about it." Dean checked his watch as the line began to move. "Look at that. Perfect timing."

When they finally reached the doors, Dean reached into his suit pocket and pulled out two tickets, shaking his head subtly at Sam when he opened his mouth to ask about them.

As they stepped into the main conference room, a voice burst out behind them. "Where'd the tickets go? They were right here a second ago!"

Dean winked at Sam, who glared back.

"You just stole from a member of a church at their own conference."

"Hey, I'm currently serving a higher power."

X

Dean kept nodding off during the service, and each time that he did Sam would nudge him hard. Finally, he decided to try to strike up a conversation to keep him awake.

He leaned closer to Sam. "I bet that _Sister Wives_ guy curses God nightly."

A nerve in Sam's jaw twitched. "Would you stop it? That's so rude, Dean." He shook his head. "For the record, Mormons who practiced polygamy when it was still church-sanctioned considered their wives and children a great blessing and privilege."

"Better him than me, is all I'm saying."

"Dean."

"I know, I know. Don't get your panties in a bunch, Samantha."

"No, Dean." Sam was staring determinedly ahead. "We're being watched." He could feel it, as though the eyes boring into the back of their heads were a physical force pushing at them.

"What?" Dean looked around and Sam nudged him to act natural.

After a few more minutes Sam let his eyes wander, glancing around, unable to find the source of the feeling without turning around. It continued until the end of the service.

When everyone stood up to leave, Sam turned under the pretense of taking his suit jacket off the back of his chair and quickly scanned the crowd. His eyes locked with a pair of golden brown ones.

"Dean." Sam was gripping his brother's arm hard, not wanting to believe what he was seeing. The sight of the petite brunette made his blood run cold. "Ava. They were talking about Ava Wilson."

"Ava Wilson? But you—"

"Killed her." Sam swallowed hard. "Yeah."

Ava's eyes met Sam's a moment longer before the moving crowd swallowed her up, her lips curving into a smile that might have been more of a sneer.

X

They had left the conference center to process this new information and regroup, meeting up again with Cas and the twins at their motel for the night.

"Okay, so Ava's alive again. Doesn't mean it's a bad thing. I was brought back, you were brought back. Multiple times, actually. Hell, half this planet's probably half-zombie and just doesn't remember." Dean picked up his cheeseburger and took a large bite.

"You think maybe she's here to help?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically. "Cause it's either that or she's working against us. This can't be coincidence."

"If she were trying to help, I doubt that she would have allowed the righteous men to be killed," Cas said. "She is probably up to something. The righteous souls do not count if they are no longer on Earth."

"Do you think it's true that she can see righteous souls?" Sam asked.

Cas cocked his head to the side, thinking. "It is possible. You said she was one of the Chosen Children. She may have further developed her powers."

"Whatever." Dean stood up and crossed to one of the beds. "Tomorrow we'll go find her and figure it out what's up one way or the other."

Without further discussion he flopped down onto the bed and was asleep in under a minute. Sam took in his untouched carryout box of pie and sighed, figuring there was no waking the hunter.

X

Less than two hours later, Cas was shaking Dean awake.

"Wha—" Dean rolled over, squinting at the angel. "Dammit, Cas, leave me alone. I need to sleep. Tired hunter equals dead hunter."

"She is coming."

"What?"

There was a flash of light and Dean blinked, staring at the spot where Cas had been. He looked around to find that the twins were gone as well. He managed to reach under his pillow and wrap his hand around the gun that was hidden there before the door was forced inward. Dean felt his body lift off of the mattress and then the next second he was hurled against the far wall, pinned there by a heavy, invisible force. A moment later, Sam landed beside him, the back of his head hitting the wall hard, sending up bright spots in his vision.

"Hello boys."

Sam blinked hard to clear his vision and saw, silhouetted in the doorway by the streetlight outside, Ava Wilson.

"Ava!" Sam's voice was hoarse, the pressure holding his body to the wall making it hard to draw a complete breath. "How are you—"

"Alive?" The brunette smiled and stepped further into the room. "Don't sound so shocked, Sammy boy. You just saw me earlier today, after all." She stopped a few feet from the hunters, her arms crossed over her chest. Her head tilted as she took in the sight of them. "I guess I can see how you'd be surprised, though. I mean, you _did_ kill me. That was very rude, by the way." Her lips twisted into a mockery of a pout, her eyes glinting maliciously. "I gotta say, though, it's good to get out and stretch my limbs."

"I'll send you back to Hell, you bitch," Dean spat, his eyes narrowed.

"Oh, so close, Dean. But not quite. See, I've got a get out of jail free card." Ava smirked. "You got it, though. I've been down below for awhile. Yeah, I guess there's just something about killing a bunch of people in service to a demon that buys you a one-way ticket to the Pit. Some sort of implied deal, you could say." She smiled, her face almost sweet, but the manic gleam hadn't disappeared from her eyes. "Luckily, there's also something about being _really _good at your job down there that buys you a ticket straight back topside. If you can prove you're useful."

"Sweetheart, you are a special kind of crazy." Dean smiled wryly, feigning confidence. He had no idea how he was going to get them out of this one yet, but hey, fake it 'til you make it, right?

If his insult bothered Ava at all, she didn't show it. "I wouldn't expect you to understand, Deano. You were in the Pit what, forty years? I've been there for six hundred. And I've gotta tell you boys, it was _really_ starting to cramp my style. There's no real challenge, you know, with the meathooks and the racks… I mean, sure they scream but…" Ava licked her lips and stepped closer to Sam. She reached up to run her fingers through his hair as he struggled to jerk away. "No. The real fun is up here, where all the little mice run."

"You've completely lost it," Sam gasped, still trying to jerk away from her hand.

"Now why would you say something so hurtful? It's only natural, isn't it Deano?" She dropped her hand and moved to the other brother, pressing the length of her body against his, her breath hot on his neck. "I mean, sure, it's hard to put them on the rack at first. The screams just tug at your poor little heart, don't they? But then after awhile you don't really feel that tug anymore. A little while longer, you begin to enjoy it." Her mouth was so close to Dean's neck now that he could feel the smooth skin of her lips moving against him when she poke, making his skin crawl. "Don't deny it, Dean baby. I was there, you know. _I saw you_. After awhile, it turns you on." She flicked her tongue out to drag across his skin.

"I swear to God I will kill you." Dean's voice was barely audible, and had he not been pinned down he would have been shaking with rage.

Ava stepped back, smirking. "Oh, I'm not worried, Deano, given how miserably you're failing to keep your last promise to God." She tutted disapprovingly. "Not one righteous soul. At this rate I'll have snapped them all up before you find the first."

"What do you want with righteous souls? They don't go to the Pit unless they've made a deal."

"It's not about where the souls go, just that they're not _here_." Ava shrugged. "My boss is very interested in making sure that they leave Earth. It would be _really_ inconvenient, after all, if you managed to stave off Armageddon _again_."

Sam glared at her, distrusting. "Why are you telling us all of this?"

Dean chuckled. "They always have to give their big evil plan speech. Thanks for that, it just puts us a step ahead, you brimstone-sucking—" His head whipped to the side as the psychic telekinetically slapped him.

"Watch your mouth." Her eyes flicked from Dean back to Sam. "But since you asked…" She smirked, reveling in her moment of big reveal. "A race is no fun unless all of the little mice know that they're in it." She let that sink in. "That's right, don't think I'm not coming for Deano here. I don't plan to leave a single righteous soul on this planet. But my boss insisted that I let him enjoy the show a little longer. So run, little mice, and we'll see who wins the hundred soul prize."

With that, Ava was gone. Sam and Dean fell to the floor as her hold released, Sam taking in great gulps of air.

"Well, Sammy, I guess that solves that debate." Dean groaned as he struggled to stand up.

X

**AN**: So much thanks to **BookwormBaby25 **for looking over this chapter and schooling me a bit on the workings of the LDS. I wanted to present this correctly so I really, really appreciate the help. :D

Also, I would like to assure people that Dean and I do not share the condescending opinions regarding the LDS. But you know, Dean's canonically sort of an asshole and I'm trying to stay true to character.


End file.
